The Great Thief

Lu Li obtained 10 Skill Points by reaching LV20. Levelling-up Shadowstrike and fighting Illidan had also awarded him with one Skill Point each. If he didn’t use any of his Skill Points, he would have 17 of them altogether.

He added a point to his Unlock Skill and his Seal Transformation, which left him with 15 remaining points.

After this, he maxed out his Shadowstrike, which only cost three Skill Points as he had manually levelled it up before. Now, he had 12 points remaining.

He then added two points to Backstab and spent three on Slit Throat to increase it to rank 3.

After all of that, Lu Li was left with seven Skill Points.

He intended to add more points to Slit throat and max it out.

Slit Throat: Instant Cast, uses up all Combo Points and attacks the throat of the target, dealing their own damage * (1 + 50% * Combo Points). If the target is below 20% HP, this attack has a chance of being a critical hit. Skill Proficiency 5/5.

A max-levelled Slit Throat didn’t have significantly more damge, but was able to reach 100% in critical chance.

This was a finishing skill.

Lu Li could open with a Cheap Shot and Ambush to deal gain two combo points each, before following with Backstab to apply Armour Break. He would then use Slit Throat to complete this five star combo. Even high-HP professions would have to submit to him.

He directly put four points into Gale Steps to max out this God-level, lifesaving skill.

Gale Steps: Instant Cast. 60 second cooldown. Forces user into Stealth and gives 2 seconds of invulnerability. When in Stealth, movement speed is increased by 80% for 8 seconds. The first attack dealt upon leaving Stealth will deal 280% damage. Current Proficiency 5/5.

Lu Li added his last two points into Shadow Cloak, which increased the magic invulnerability duration to four seconds.

This single second was not to be underestimated, as it could play a vital role on many occasions. Lu Li would have liked to max out this skill, but he didn’t have enough Skill Points.

The other players must have had it even worse, if a LV20 player that had just gained seven bonus Skill Points was struggling with a lack them.

The cost of upgrading skills was really expensive and increased with the strength of the skill. It had cost Lu Li 26 gold coins to upgrade Gale Steps with four skill points.

This was equivalent to three weeks of work for an average player.

His wallet was getting smaller!

Lu Li thought about his sister’s medical expenses and the big house that they both had their hearts set on. He clenched his fists; he needed to make more money.

He had originally planned to take his permanent party to do an Instance Dungeon, but they had all run off to do their Profession Upgrade Quests. Lu Li then made a chatroom to provide live guidance. His teammates just needed to describe their map quest, for him to provide additional strategy.

His ability to do this was more shocking to Wandering and Sesame Rice Ball, than the fact that Lu Li had already completed his Profession Upgrade Quest.

Completing the Quest could have just been luck, but to provide map-specific analysis like this was insane.

Sesame Rice Ball felt that he, who considered to be a top Warlock player, was weak. Even the other top players of the large guilds had to kneel before Lu Li.

This was just like Demigods and Semi-Devils. Everyone was so focused on the popular people like Jiang Hu, but they had no idea about the unimaginably strong monks who were in the Shaolin Temple.

As Lu Li was gave out commands, he also tried to pick a quest.

“North of Astrana, there is a group of Thistle Skin Bears. My scouts report that their numbers have grown rapidly over the past few months. If their numbers become too great, they might become strong enough to attack Astrana! Go to the Thistle Skin village and kill as many as you can. I will be here waiting for your report. May the moon be with you.”

A leather-clad Meisnera was distributing quests to the players around her.

This was Meisnera’s post; it was primarily set up to defend against the new residents of the Northern Odila Ruins – the Thistle Skin Bears.

Meisnera was renowned for her beauty. Not only was she physically beautiful, she also had an irresistible voice. It was regarded as the pinnacle of virtual technology.

There were many players who loitered around Meisnera’s post in the hope of engaging in a few lines of dialogue with her.

Some players claimed that if they found someone in the real world who had a voice like hers, it wouldn’t matter even they were really ugly.

However, Lu Li wasn’t here to listen to Meisnera’s voice – he wasn’t so pitiful. Although, in his past life, he had been reluctant the leave the post for a few weeks…

After receiving the quest, Lu Li left the crowd and found a quiet place to transform into a leopard, before running to the Thistle Village like the wind.

Meisnera’s quest was well-known but its rewards were mediocre. They only included some EXP and a Bronze equip. He had only accepted this quest for the cute Thistle Skin Bears.

These monsters had a chance of dropping the Thief Poison recipe!

For this reason, he had to grind them, even though they were only LV17-19 and would yield little to no EXP.

However, this situation wasn’t without its benefits.

As these monsters were two to three levels below him, he could deal the maximum amount of damage.

Coupled with his fast-farming rate, this allowed him to gain EXP at a somewhat reasonable rate.

“Taking over the bear farming field, leave the area now!”

“Taking over the bear farming field, leave the area now!”

The people that said this were loud, and their tone was arrogant.

“Who wants to take over the field?”

Who would be so insolent as to try and take over such a densely populated area? This area was required for Meisnera’s quest; they had to be kidding.

“Angel Wings?”

The people who were yelling turned around and saw the badges of injustice.

“Correct, I am a member of the Angel Wings…”

Although he was only a fringe member, the guild that he claimed to be from wasn’t obscure.

“I don’t care that you are from Angel Wings. Step aside.”

The other players did not give the Angel Wings any respect and declared, “We, the Imperial Secret Service are taking over this area. It doesn’t matter if you are the Angel Wings or even the Wings of Dawn. Step aside.”

The Angel Wings was a branch of the Wings of Dawn, which was a fairly large guild and only slightly lower-ranked than the Imperial Secret Service.

Although the Imperial Secret Service had been humiliated by Lu Li, they were large enough that most ordinary players treated them well.

Upon hearing the name ‘Imperial Secret Service’, the Thistle Village players changed their expressions.

Losing EXP for this wasn’t worth it. Why would anyone throw away their EXP by resisting them?

Everyone took a step back!

They probably wouldn’t occupy it for too long and would be gone soon enough.

However, for Lu Li, the name ‘Imperial Secret Service’ brought back fond memories.

Lu Li smiled before equipping the bandana from his backpack, his eyes glowing with excitement.